Sunday, 31 August 2014

This is a very much briefer update than I had planned. This week I have finished painting the last of the Slann needed for the upcoming 5,000 point battle.

The army is now tabletop ready. However, due to a series of problems I have encountered this weekend I have'nt been able to assemble the whole army for photographing. I plan to do an army photograph mid week (wednesday or thursday). I will also have to postpone the examination of all the Slann ranges until my next proper update, which will be this Saturday as I am out all day on the Sunday.

On the plus side, I have painted 22 Slann this week, varnished them, and based them, as well as varnishing and basing the 20 Jaguar Warriors, the War Altar and Guards, and 40 Spawn Band Slann. In addition I varnished 187 Skaven and 6 Rat Ogres.
Enjoy :)

10 Warrior Priests with Bane Banner.

The banner is an Aztec 'Smiley Demon' banner from Outpost Wargames, with a collection of GW skulls on the pole.

I went for a golden dagger rather than obsidian as I felt it stood out against the black warpaint of the Slann better.

All the the Warrior Priests.

I do also have a converted Priest model sitting on a Palaquin but I have not painted him yet as he is not needed for this 5,000 army list.

The last pair of Jaguar warriors needed for the regiment. I painted the Jaguar Warrior suits either, tan, red, green or blue as the Aztecs used to use different coloured suits issused acording to a warriors experence and the number of captives they took for sacrifice.

20 Jaguar Warriors.

I thought different coloured suits would break up the bland uniformity of the regiment and add extra colour. I have kept the shields and some of the details the same, just varied the suits colour and the flesh of some of the Slann.

The banner is an Aztec one from Outpost Wargames.

Slann Spawn Band Warriors.

Both miniatures are the 'Nahuatl' model. I already have a Jungle Brave Regiment made up of this model, and it's one of my favourite Slann miniautres as it's face is full of character, and it's really quick and easy to paint!

2 more 'Nahuatl', one blue and the other with a slightly re-positioned arm and orange eyes.

Incidentally, Nahuatl is the Meso-American language which the Aztecs and other groups spoke (and still do) in Mexico.

Fan bearer from the Palaquin set pressed into service as a Standard Bearer.

Right is the 'Unlisted Slann with club' which I have converted to hold a small horn so as to act as a musician for the regiment.

40 Slann Spawn Band, ready for war.

As I mentioned, I will aim to do the 5,000 point army update mid week, and then hopefully the full Slann ranges update next weekend. Painting wise, despite the temptation to carry on painting Slann, I shall return to the Skaven.

Sunday, 24 August 2014

It's been a bitty week for painting. I am still working to complete the painting of the odd and ends of the Slann army ready for the 5,000 point encounter in mid September. At the start of the week I managed to paint the converted/scratch built Slann War Altar with Guards.

Mid week painting was slowed due to work, but I re-focused my time on the Gnolls/Great Goblins. With all this business with the Skaven, Nipponese, and Slann, I have'nt forgotten the Goblins. As I have been working a lot of overtime recently, I have been buying some more of the old FTG Fantasy Tribes/C12 Gnolls/ Great Goblins as I really do love the models, and if I see a stray Gnoll/Great Goblin (or two) on e-bay I feel they need a good home. In addition to buying the little critters, mid-week I have also been repairing broken ones I have bought over the years, although restoring them might be a better verb as I have been trying to repair any damage and return them to their original state rather than converting them.

Later in the week and at the weekend it has been back to the Slann. I have been re/painting Slann Spawn Band models and tidying up thier general appearence. I have done this for 30 of them so far, with only 10 left to do. Concerning the Slann army this means I have 10 Warrior Priests also left to paint, 2 Jaguar Warriors, and then some varnishing and basing. As the battle is mid September I should be fine, and back to painting the Skaven in a couple of weeks at most.
Enjoy :)

Slann War Altar with Warrior Priest Guards.

The War Altar itself is a normal Slann Wizard Palaquin with a C39 Treasure Chest placed on the front (I had to remove the little bowl of grapes from the front of the Palaquin), and then with an Outpost Wargames Aztect 'Fire Banner' on the back.

I painted the Palaquin gold to give the idea of a guilded platform for the chest, which I consider to have the magically charged remians of a long dead Slann Mage inside.

War Altar banner.

2 Warrior Priest Guards using the Slann model 'Lumholtz', and with the addition of a shield from Crooked Claw Miniatures Goblin range, complete with a flayed Dwarf face!

20 Spawn Band Slann.

The Spawn bands are the normal profiled Slann in any army, and the only compulsory part of the Slann army in Warhammer Armies. Background wise they are a miltia, and so I have tried to use a varied selction of models, skin tones, and paint schemes to relfect a greater degree of individuality.

What follows are a selection of a few of them:

Left to right, Slann standard bearer (made using a fan bearer from the Slann Wizard Palaquin set); the regimental leader using the Slann Warrior from the Magnificent Sven Scenario range; and a Talsiman Toad as a stand-in Musician model.

Left is an unlisted Slann with club, and centre unlisted Slann with Sword. On the right is 'Allda'. Is it just me or does he remind anyone else of the actor Alan Alda?

'Cuppacocoa', 'Quinine', and 'Lep'nluni'. I never noticed the casting line on Quinine until the blog update, so I shall fix that asap.

A 'Lumholtz' model without an added shield, a solid based C32 'Herald', and 'Nanuazin'.

The second Regiment of Spawn Band so far.

'Huastecan',one of the Lieutenant's from the Magnificent Sven Scenario range, and 'Hacienda'. With a name like Hacienda he should own a club ;) .

'Toltec', a converted 'Quinine' model, and a bright red unlisted Slann with club.

Before I get to the Gnolls I manged to buy another one of Tom Meier's awesome CP3 Troglodytes, 'Troglodyte with Halberd'. It is a beautifully detailed model, the runes of the halberd are excellent, as is the lizard grin of the Troglodyte itself.

I only have one left to find now.

Gnoll/Great Goblins infantry.

These are not all of the ones I have aquired from e-bay, only the ones I did'nt have. I have bought about the same again in number of doubles (and triples!). I have managed to bang a few bargins recently, as well as paying a little more for the odd one or two here and there.

It would be insane to try to collect all of them as it is not known how many variants there are, and some of them go for a pretty penny now a days! I am happy to collect the range as I go, and in a way in which I am not paying a crazy amount for each one.

I love the miniautres range, and that's the reason I collect them. :)

Newly bought Boar rider variants which I had'nt owned before. I have also aquired a couple more doubles as well, bringing the total number of Boar riders up to 20.

For the Boars I am using both the 'running open mouthed version', and the 'standing closed mouthed version'.

Rear view of the Gnoll above on the left showing his shield; centre a FTG6 Gnolls/Great Goblins Halberdier, although he is'nt listed on the CMM Wiki page; and a broken FTG11 Female Gnolls/Great Goblin. I will sculpt an new arm for her, and maybe 'shave her' as I don't like the idea of the Female Gnolls/Great Goblins having whiskers!

FTG6 Gnolls/Great Goblins on Giant Boars, variations 6 and 3.

FTG6 riders seem to be the pointed eared version of the Gnolls/Great Goblins, whilst FTG9 are the other, more bigger nosed version.

Left an unlisted FTG6 Gnolls/Great Goblin on Giant Boar. On the right a FTG9 Gnolls/Great Goblin on Giant Boar, variation 6.

FTG9 Gnolls/Great Goblin on Giant Boar, variation 2, and is also a one piece casting.

Repairing Gnolls/Great Goblins.

On the left is an undamaged FTG1 Gnolls/Great Goblin with Pole Arm, variation 3.

Centre is a repaired one.

On the right is a halberd from Wargames Foundry used to repair. I have found that these are nearly identical to the ones used by the Gnolls, and only a little shaping is required.

Citadel used the same basic weapons for a lot of thier weapons, so the weapons used by the Gnolls/Great Goblins are often used in other ranges.

2 More repaired Gnolls/Great Goblins.

Left is an unbroken Gnoll/Great Goblin with a Pole Arm (a sort of Boat Hook/Bill).

Centre is a Fiend Factory Red Orc/Goblin with the same weapon.

Right is a repaired Gnoll/Great Goblin repaired using a broken off spear from another Red Orc/Goblin. I need to file down the green stuff little, but it was added as the pole shaft was slightly thicker. I am aware the pole arm is facing the 'wrong way', but it is like that on this actual model.

The broken, pole arm-less Red Orc/Goblin will be converted into a standard bearer.

Two Gnoll/Great Goblin repaired using Essex Miniatures parts.

Finally a FTG 7 Gnoll/Great Goblin with Hand weapon.

He's not damaged or repaired, nor is he a model is did'nt have before.

I just posted him as he's cute, look at those ears :)

Next week's update should be more on painting Slann. As I am painted Slann at the moment, I am also considering doing a focused update on the Slann ranges of models, with front and back photographs and a detailed analysis of the design and sculpting.

Saturday, 16 August 2014

I have put the Skaven army project and the Chaos Nipponese project on hold.

Why?

After chatting with my old friend Justin, who runs the excellent Masterwork Guild Blog : http://themasterworkguild.blogspot.co.uk/ we have decided to stage a 5,000 point a side 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle game. Justin will field his Wood Elves, and I have decided to field the Slann.
For us it is a classic match up as both of our armies fought against each other many times in the 1980's and early 1990's, and I am really looking forward to it and getting back to painting up some Slann for a while. Once the Slann painting is completed I will get back to the Skaven.

As I was in the middle of a repaint and remodeling of my Slann army before I decided to focus on other projects, it means that I have to switch my focus to getting the Slann army up to speed. This is'nt as a much of a task as it sounds, but requires me to paint:

one regiment of 10 Warrior Priests,
one War Altar on a littler, with 4 Warrior Priest Guards,
finish off the repainting of 40 Spawn Bands,
base 20 Jaguar Warriors,

all in about four weeks. This should'nt be too much to handle, although I need to knuckle down to painting as I have been a little lax in painting recently due to sunny weather and lethergy after work. We plan to stage the battle at Justins on his new gaming table with me travelling up north, to Surrey.

Total = 4,885 points. With the remaining points I might buy an Animal Handler with a pair of Giant Scorpions, or maybe another Wizard. I might use the Ambulls as stand-in's for the Giant Scorpions, as alien monsters drawn from the universe by powerful magics to do the Slann's bidding!

We have both deceided to avoid using Level 25 Wizards so as not to use Level 4 magic. Normally in my army updates I would explain the tactical plans for the army, but in this case I'll leave that for the post battle report.

I thought it would be fun to have the army led by Gurggl Greenwake, the hero (and hopefully victor if you played the Slann right!) of the 'Magnificent Sven' scenario in Warhammer 2nd Edition. I thought it would be fitting as he had Generalled the army in the 1980's, and because Kremlo is to General the 3,000 point list I wrote last year.

Here is a quick look at the list of what I am to paint:

Gurggl Greenwake, Army General and vanquisher of Vastervik. ;)

He does'nt need repainting or tinkering with.

10 Warrior Priests with Bane Banner.

The banner is made from a a 'Smiling Demon' Aztec banner bought from Outpost Wargames, re-mounted on brass rod and with skulls on the pole, just give that added sacrificial horror from the Warrior Priests which the Bane Banner represents.

On the left a shield from Outpost Wargames, and on the right a test model from a while ago. I will largely keep to the paint scheme of the test model.

War Altar on Litter with Guards.

It is simply a Slann Wizards Palaquin without the two Slann on it, but with a little Citadel C39 range Treasure Chest on it, backed with an Outpost Wargames banner attacted to the back of the cushions.

To give it a better look, the model is based on a 50mm square base.

As an aside, when Warhammer Armies was released in 1988 there was a promotional deal for Mail Order customers where you could buy a basic army on offer. I placed a mail order for the Slann, and the War Altar was the Palaquin model above, but without the Treasure chest, guards, or course banner.
After taking the photograph I notice that the banner wasa little wonky, so I have since straightened it.
I have used the Treasure Chest to represent the remians of a Slann Wizard of great renown, hence it's use as a War Altar focus and being placed on a Wizards Palaquin.

Side view.

For the Altar Guards I have given them an shields from Crooked Claw Miniatures Goblin Range which feature the flayed face of a Dwarf on them!

40 Spawn Bands.

About half of them are painted up the the standard I want. The rest require some painting or tinkering with. Instead of just painting the Spawn Bands flesh green as I had previously decided on, I thought I would give a mix of flesh colours to add more colour, but keeping about 60% of them still painted green.

Spawn Band mostly completed.

Spawn Band mostly not completed.

I have added the Talisman Toad model as a musician model for fun.

The Slann Emperor Model.

I have scratch built this model from a variety of bits, and changed it since the last time I posted it.

Gone are the unwieldly looking banners, and I have replaced them with a converted C23 pre-slotta Slann 'Herald' model to hold an Umbrella style Aztec standard from Outpost Wargames.

The Slann Emperor is the Coach model from Gaspez Arts, and they are both mounted on a sctrach built palaquin carried by C22 Slann Wizard Litter.

The whole model is a WIP an I am not planning on getting it finished for thegame as I have several other C22 Palaquin riding Wizards I can use.

Close up view.

I have added a C39 Treasure Chest and a CH5 Chaos Sorcerers Familar named 'Walking Book' to add character, and niether of which are glued on yet as I still have finish the palaquin itself.

Eagle Warrior.

This afternoon I re-converted up one of the Eagle Warriors Heroes, losing the gold blade and replacing it with an Old Slann High Age tech weapon, in this case a slightly modified Rogue Trader Eldar Chainsword, which will need repainting.

Most of the painted Slann from which the pick out the rest of the army.

Next update will be the progress of the Slann army, and also an update on Great Goblins/Gnolls as I have been picking up a few more on e-bay recently.